The Degaldoruwa Buddhist temple is a cave temple and was built originally in 1771 CE by King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747 - 1782), a member of the Madurai royal family. The beautiful frescoes, painted by the samanera (unordained monk) Devaragamapola Silvatenna in 1771-72, capture 18th century Kandyan life with amazing detail and vivaciousness. Some paintings depict the king and the royal family. The artist-monk started a trend, and the Dambulla Caves were subsequently redecorated in the same style as were other temples. Kandy is Sri Lanka's second biggest city with a population of around 170,000


The Degaldoruwa Buddhist temple is a cave temple and was built originally in 1771 CE by King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747 - 1782), a member of the Madurai royal family. The beautiful frescoes, painted by the samanera (unordained monk) Devaragamapola Silvatenna in 1771-72, capture 18th century Kandyan life with amazing detail and vivaciousness. Some paintings depict the king and the royal family. The artist-monk started a trend, and the Dambulla Caves were subsequently redecorated in the same style as were other temples. Kandy is Sri Lanka's second biggest city with a population of around 170,000 and is the cultural centre of the whole island. For about two centuries (until 1815) it was the capital of Sri Lanka.


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Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: architecture, arts, asia, asian, bell, buddha, buddhism, buddhist, cave, ceylon, ceylonese, degaldoruwa, heritage, historical, history, image, images, kandy, krack, lanka, lankan, pictures, rainer, religion, sinhalese, site, sri, temple, temples, theravada, tower, unesco, world